spiney
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Notable films today (Sunday).
1) ET the extraterrestrial, ITV2, 2.40pm, repeated 8pm.
I don't like this film (flying carpets yes, flying bicycles no!). But, there's no denying its place in movie history, breaking box office records, and putting the phrase "ET phone home" on everyones' lips.
This is very much a weepy (if you're that way inclined, then have the hankies ready!). Director Spielberg laid on the cloying sentiment very thickly, with a builder's trowel, which put off a lot of people. FIlm critics gave reluctant praise, disliking the film but acknowledging the achievement. Intellectuals were more openly hostile ("darling, how can I possibly get excited about a talking vacuum cleaner"?). But, cinema goers disagreed, and in the end that's what matters.
(Spielberg had to wait to win open praise from critics, with films like Private Ryan and Shindler's List).
Like other early Spielbergs, this is about children and childhood fantasies (either children directly, or adults behaving much like children). Little boy Eliot is fatherless and lonely, so "bonds" with child-alien ET, also lonely!
Like Close Encounters, this has elements from many "classic" Disney cartoon films (which Spielberg watched as a child), and some religious overtones (ET dies, then comes to life again). What saves the film is a good script, getting much humour from the situation, although the plot "falls to bits" during the 2nd half.
The memorable "key scene" - very much parodied! - has children flying their anti-gravity bycicles acoss a full moon.
ET is also notable for some amazing acting from very young Drew Barrymore, and the music by John Williams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial (good trivia and popular culture notes).
2) The Wolf Man, Film4, 3pm.
Universal Studios' great 1930s horror films had 3 major "series": Frankenstein (brilliant); Dracula (good), and Wolf Man (watchable). Alright, if you like that sort of thing, Lon Chaney makes a good werewolf!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_Man .
3) The 7% Solution, ITV3, 4.40pm.
Although not sci fi, this is notable for being one of the few filmed Sherlock Holmes spoofs!
The ingenious premise is that Holmes' arch-enemy Moriarty ("The Napoleon of Crime") isn't real, but merely a drug induced fantasy (7% solution is the drug suspension, Holmes' well known cocaine habit). So, Dr Watson lays down a trail of false clues, leading to Vienna, where Holmes gets psychoanalysed by Dr Freud (a real character meets a fictional one, but surely Sherlock Holmes is "almost real"?).
This film has a superb cast (including Sir Lawrence Olivier, as Moriarty).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven-Per-Cent_Solution .
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075194/ .
Other filmed Holmes spoofs are Without a Clue (quite funny), Disney's cartoon Basil The Mouse Detective (good), and Billy Wilder's brilliant and unmissable Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (heavily cut by the studio, so half the film lies in a vault somewhere, still unseen!).
Writing Sherlock Holmes stories - both straightforward pastiches, and outright spoofs - is a "minor industry" (how many people know that Beatle John Lennon wrote a Sherlock Holmes Story?). Nick Meyer has written lots of short stories, and several novels (of which 7% is one), as well as editing pastiche collections.
Sci fi / horror writer August Derleth wrote a series of Holmes stories, pretty much straightforward pastiche, very similar to the originals, but called his detective "Solar Pons" (!!!).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Pons .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-canonical_works_related_and_derived_from_Sherlock_Holmes .
PS, all the original Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels are downloadable free, from Project Gutenberg.
_http://www.gutenberg.org/
1) ET the extraterrestrial, ITV2, 2.40pm, repeated 8pm.
I don't like this film (flying carpets yes, flying bicycles no!). But, there's no denying its place in movie history, breaking box office records, and putting the phrase "ET phone home" on everyones' lips.
This is very much a weepy (if you're that way inclined, then have the hankies ready!). Director Spielberg laid on the cloying sentiment very thickly, with a builder's trowel, which put off a lot of people. FIlm critics gave reluctant praise, disliking the film but acknowledging the achievement. Intellectuals were more openly hostile ("darling, how can I possibly get excited about a talking vacuum cleaner"?). But, cinema goers disagreed, and in the end that's what matters.
(Spielberg had to wait to win open praise from critics, with films like Private Ryan and Shindler's List).
Like other early Spielbergs, this is about children and childhood fantasies (either children directly, or adults behaving much like children). Little boy Eliot is fatherless and lonely, so "bonds" with child-alien ET, also lonely!
Like Close Encounters, this has elements from many "classic" Disney cartoon films (which Spielberg watched as a child), and some religious overtones (ET dies, then comes to life again). What saves the film is a good script, getting much humour from the situation, although the plot "falls to bits" during the 2nd half.
The memorable "key scene" - very much parodied! - has children flying their anti-gravity bycicles acoss a full moon.
ET is also notable for some amazing acting from very young Drew Barrymore, and the music by John Williams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E.T._the_Extra-Terrestrial (good trivia and popular culture notes).
2) The Wolf Man, Film4, 3pm.
Universal Studios' great 1930s horror films had 3 major "series": Frankenstein (brilliant); Dracula (good), and Wolf Man (watchable). Alright, if you like that sort of thing, Lon Chaney makes a good werewolf!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wolf_Man .
3) The 7% Solution, ITV3, 4.40pm.
Although not sci fi, this is notable for being one of the few filmed Sherlock Holmes spoofs!
The ingenious premise is that Holmes' arch-enemy Moriarty ("The Napoleon of Crime") isn't real, but merely a drug induced fantasy (7% solution is the drug suspension, Holmes' well known cocaine habit). So, Dr Watson lays down a trail of false clues, leading to Vienna, where Holmes gets psychoanalysed by Dr Freud (a real character meets a fictional one, but surely Sherlock Holmes is "almost real"?).
This film has a superb cast (including Sir Lawrence Olivier, as Moriarty).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven-Per-Cent_Solution .
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075194/ .
Other filmed Holmes spoofs are Without a Clue (quite funny), Disney's cartoon Basil The Mouse Detective (good), and Billy Wilder's brilliant and unmissable Private Life of Sherlock Holmes (heavily cut by the studio, so half the film lies in a vault somewhere, still unseen!).
Writing Sherlock Holmes stories - both straightforward pastiches, and outright spoofs - is a "minor industry" (how many people know that Beatle John Lennon wrote a Sherlock Holmes Story?). Nick Meyer has written lots of short stories, and several novels (of which 7% is one), as well as editing pastiche collections.
Sci fi / horror writer August Derleth wrote a series of Holmes stories, pretty much straightforward pastiche, very similar to the originals, but called his detective "Solar Pons" (!!!).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_Pons .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-canonical_works_related_and_derived_from_Sherlock_Holmes .
PS, all the original Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels are downloadable free, from Project Gutenberg.
_http://www.gutenberg.org/